India had shared actionable intelligence with Sri Lanka: Rajnath

Kashmir Times. Dated: 4/26/2019 1:14:24 AM

MUMBAI, Apr 25 (Agencies): Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh has said Indian authorities shared “actionable” intelligence with Sri Lanka before the serial blasts rocked the neighbouring country.Nearly 360 people were killed in the Easter Sunday bombings in the island nation.“Desired and actionable inputs were shared with the authorities in Sri Lanka prior to the blasts. But unfortunately, they (plotters) succeeded,” Singh told reporters.Asked if Sri Lanka failed to act on those inputs, he said it is not a question of blaming that country’s government for it. Nine suicide bombers, believed to be members of local Islamist extremist group named National Thowheed Jamath (NTJ), carried out the series of blasts that tore through three churches and three luxury hotels.However, the NTJ has not claimed responsibility for the attacks.According to officials, intelligence inputs about a possible terror attack in Sri Lanka, targetting the Indian High Commission, were shared by Indian agencies with their counterparts in the island nation earlier this month after the National Investigation Agency completed its probe into an ISIS-inspired module planning to kill prominent leaders in South India.The inputs were sent through diplomatic channels to Sri Lanka after a thorough investigation pertaining to the ISIS case in Coimbatore was carried out by the NIA, which has filed a charge sheet against seven people.During investigation, the probe team had stumbled upon videos of NTJ leader Zahran Hashim, which was indicative of a terror attack on the Indian High Commission in Colombo.After further investigation which included cyber trailing of some of the accounts associated with the ISIS, the central security agencies shared an input with their Lankan counterparts about the churches being the likely target of the ISIS module, the officials said.